Brutal Beauty

This is January in Ushuaia, Argentina. Summer.

From the hills above the city, the mountains of southern Patagonia rise behind you and the sea churns in front of you.

The buildings that make up the short skyline have the look of temporary structures, meant to be easily assembled, and as easily replaced once they can no longer sustain in the harsh conditions of life at the end of the world.

From port, Argentina lies to your left and Chile to your right. Antarctica is straight ahead through the channel and then sharply to the right. The Falkland Islands are straight ahead and slightly to the left.

There are hundreds of miles of unsettled wilderness between this point and the populated cities to the north, yet for some reason, this rough rock, in this relentlessly cold and windy place, is where some people have chosen to live their entire lives in constant struggle with its brutal beauty.